Three persons died, while five others were rescued after the boat in which they were sailing capsized at Powai Lake on Friday night. Search operation lasted for 20 hours after bodies of three were fished out on Saturday. Those onboard the boat were Mumbai residents and were on for a leisure ride.
Three persons died, while five others were rescued after the boat in which they were sailing capsized at Powai Lake on Friday night. Search operation lasted for 20 hours after bodies of three were fished out on Saturday. Those onboard the boat were Mumbai residents and were on for a leisure ride.
The deceased have been identified as Dinesh Keshav Bhoir (28), builder Rasool Khan (35) and Atif Khan (19). While others rescued from drowning were Kunal Patil, Paresh Panchal, Deepak Patil, Naresh Thakur and boat navigator Appu Mandal. Mandal is the only person who is currently hospitalised.
According to the police, around 10:30 pm eight persons were sailing in a boat inside the lake and were heading towards the boathouse. The boat belonged to Maharashtra State Angling Association and hotelier Newton Joshua was member of the said group.
"Rasool was a friend of our employer Joshua and he frequently visit the boathouse for fishing and partying. On Friday Rasool along with his friends had come to Boathouse around 7:30pm and we were going to pick up few more of Rasool's friends around 10:30pm. We picked up two friends Kunal and Paresh who had arrived for party," said Appu Mandal, who is recuperating at a Powai Hospital.
"While returning back, none of us could see the pole in the lake, meant to prevent crocodile attacks and the boat went on to hit the pole and toppled. We then shouted for help and another boat in the lake came for our rescue," he added.
While Appu, Kunal and Paresh were rescued by the other members, Dipak and Naresh swam themselves to the shore, while Dinesh, Rasool and Atif drowned in the mishap.
"Surprisingly, Rasool was very good swimmer and might have drowned while saving his nephew Atif . They had come here for a get-together and the unfortunate mishap occurred. Atif had even posted it on a social media website that he was at Powai Lake," said Rasool's brother Faiz.
"Those onboard were not members of our club and they took the boat without required permissions. They did not enter the lake from the club building and accessed the boat from another side at Ganpati Ghat," said Syed Zeeshan Ahmed, Chairman of Maharashtra State Angling Association Committee.
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